Circle's USDC stablecoin trading volume has surpassed Tether's USDT for the first time this year, The Block reported on March 13, citing Mizuho analysts.

In a research note, Mizuho said USDC's share versus USDT was 64 percent to 36 percent based on adjusted trading volume. It said a long-term trend in which USDT led USDC from 2019 to 2025 has reversed.

Mizuho's adjusted trading volume filters out bots and high-frequency trading. It includes transactions generated on centralised exchanges, decentralised exchanges and other identifiable institutional addresses, as well as transactions from addresses that do not exceed 1,000 transactions or $10 million in volume on a 30-day basis. Mizuho defined the metric as transactions that appear to involve real people or institutions moving funds.

Mizuho said this includes corporate payment settlements, Polymarket betting and fund movements between centralised exchanges and decentralised finance protocols.

By market capitalisation, USDT still dominates. USDT has a market value of $184 billion, while USDC is about $79 billion.

Mizuho analysts said USDC is used more in everyday real-economy activity. They said Circle's USDC has a higher share of use as a payment method. Mizuho said that in the long term the winner among stablecoins will not be the one with the biggest market value, but the one used most in everyday economic activity, and called the trend of USDC gaining share in trading volume positive.